“Sitting is the new smoking” is a popular health phrase that emerged in the 2010s, warning about the dangers of prolonged sedentary behavior. While it’s a catchy slogan, the comparison is somewhat overstated. Smoking is definitively more dangerous, but the underlying concerns about excessive sitting are legitimate. When we were younger, much less when our parents were younger, seeing a movie with a guy like Humphrey Bogart sucking on a cigarette, was normal and not…
Australia just launched what is being called the world’s first ban on social media for children under 16. It takes effect today (December 10, 2025). What the law does is that it prevents Australians under 16 from creating or keeping accounts on age-restricted social media platforms. That means the government is deactivating a huge number (over 1 million) of social media accounts that transgress that standard. There are no parental consent exceptions. Even with parental…
In this day and age it takes a lot to shock me and even more than that to stop me cold in my tracks, but this morning that has happened. I’m sitting here at the Cornell Club, having flown into JFK last evening with Kim from Prague via Finnair and Helsinki, over the pole (flyin’ in a big airliner..just like Paul McCartney wrote in Back in the U.S.S.R.). There were no chickens flying everywhere around…
This is day 67 in my Zepbound journey. but given our travel schedule, I haven’t stepped on a scale for 14 days. During that time I’ve had two Zepbound shots, the last of my 5 mg shots and the first of my 7.5 mg shots. I should note that since the Zepbound journey takes you over six months from a dose of 2.5 mg to 15 mg, I’m not even half way to the end…
As most people who read this blog know, I am traveling in Europe at the moment, heading back to New York City tomorrow to spend a few days with the family in Midtown Manhattan to celebrate the holidays and then head back to our hilltop to dig in for the full holiday season. I have written often about the angst we have about traveling as the years pass by. I get regularly chided by friends…
It’s December and we’re in Prague, where the temperature is hovering in the 30s day and night. We aren’t in this sort of weather very often these days, but so far it feels more invigorating than oppressive (being fully clothed in coats, hats and gloves). I suspect that has a lot to do with the fact that we’re only here for a few days and it’s always easier to dip in to inclement weather and…
When my mother died at 100, eight years ago, I wrote her biography and called it Mater Gladiatrix. That title spoke to me because of my four years of Latin (which she strongly encouraged me to take) and the strength and resilience that she exhibited fearlessly throughout her life, both in her personal and professional demeanor. As a courtesy to my two older sisters, I sent them a semi-final draft of the book and the…
I have a long and involved affiliation with Venezuela. In 1946, my mother, at the age of thirty, “joined the Foreign Legion” by hiring on to the Rockefeller Foundation to go to Venezuela to do rural indigenous development work. She was literally choosing to escape a turbulent five years on both the global and personal fronts and trade in her decade of work with the New York State Welfare Department for a new adventure. After…
This trip that we are on with the people from Steam Dreams, that run special steam locomotives throughout the United Kingdom for both day trips and multi day excursions, has been a very interesting trip for us. To begin with they have gathered, in addition to a series of well recognized steam locomotives, an older traditional set of train cars that they have retrofitted with quaint plush seating arrangements configured as dining cars. In the…
Back in the 1800s on some obscure cricket field, when a bowler achieved the rare feat of taking three wickets with three consecutive deliveries, he was traditionally awarded a new hat from his club, or allowed to pass around his hat to collect money from spectators. Then in hockey (among other sports), the term became a big celebratory moment… literal hats rain down onto the ice from the crowd when a player scores three goals…